1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a profiled seal for use in tunnel segments and comprises cut out grooves along the bottom of the seal; channels along the upper part of the seal; lateral faces and spreading feet for the seal; plus a bridge system having an outer bridge and an inner bridge.
2. The Prior Art
Sealing frames of a concrete, steel, steel/concrete, or cast iron segment usually consist of four assembled strand-shaped profiled seals, or profiled strips, made of elastomeric material; for example, made of rubber or rubberlike plastic, with the corners of the frames preferably being made by an injection molding process. It is particularly important for the tunnel to be of a tubing construction with a specific arrangement of the segments. It is often sufficient for each segment to have one sealing frame. However, it may be necessary under some circumstances for each segment to be provided with a double sealing frame, with the two parallel sealing frames being able to be connected to one another by an additional transverse profiled seal, such as that disclosed in Ep-A 0,337,177. The profiled seals and sealing frames are usually located in a corresponding groove (groove depth d, groove width w) of the tunnel segment. Under the action of compressive force, the gap separation between two tunnel segments is reduced from S (separation in the unloaded condition) to S' (separation in the loaded condition). This compresses the two opposite elastomeric profiles, which results in the gap being sealed.
Profiled seals used in tunnel projects in the past have primarily had mirror symmetry in cross section relative to the perpendicular longitudinal central plane of the profile. It has turned out in this case that profiled strips that have corrugation grooves and channels running in the longitudinal direction (GB-B 2,170,561; GB-B 2,178,114; GB-B 2,182,987; EP-A 0,255,600; and Ep-A 0,306,796) are particularly effective in their sealing function.
Asymmetric profiled seals (DE-U 7,432,945; EP-A 0,306,581; EP-0,368,174) and activatable profiled seals (DE-A 3,543,808; EP-A 0,340,659) have so far achieved less importance.